On August 4, the Subcommittee on Technology of the House Committee on Science held an oversight hearing on assistive technology and universal design. Below are the 7 prepared statements submitted. Following my usual convention, I have separated each significant section -- piece of testimony, in this case -- with a line of 10 dashes -- thus allowing one to skip ahead if desired. ---------- PREPARED STATEMENT OF CONSTANCE A. MORELLA CHAIRWOMAN BEFORE THE HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY SUBJECT - DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS FOR ASSISTIVE AND UNIVERSALLY DESIGNED TECHNOLOGY TO ASSIST THE PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1998 Welcome to the Technology Subcommittee's second hearing on assistive technologies. The Subcommittee held its first hearing, last July, focusing on the transfer of federal technologies to meet the needs for those with disabled conditions. We learned from the hearing that these technologies, which we know as "assistive technologies" are being used to increase, maintain, and improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. An assistive technology is a device, whether acquired commercially, off-the-shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. Throughout the United States, Americans are using assistive technology to achieve greater independence and to enhance the quality of their lives. Examples of assistive technologies, which provide for more independent, productive, and enjoyable living, range from items as basic as Velcro in adapted clothing, a computer that can be used by an individual with Cerebral Palsy, a motor scooter or a hearing aid for an individual who is aging, and enhanced voice recognition for someone with Multiple Sclerosis, to items as intricate as using the Global Positioning Satellite system in conjunction with the Department of Defense to assist visually impaired individuals and a Talking Signs project in conjunction with the Department of Transportation using infrared transmitters and receivers to provide orientation to low vision or learning disabled individuals. These assistive technologies are providing a disabled individual the means to function better in the workplace or the home. For the 49 million people in the Unites States who have disabilities, as well as for Americans who are able bodied, assistive technologies have yielded a tremendous number of quality of life enhancements. These technology solutions improve an individual's ability to learn, compete, work and interact with family and friends. As a result of our first hearing, the Technology Subcommittee was impressed with the need for a greater emphasis to develop assistive technologies. Yet, I am concerned that the area of assistive technology has been overlooked by both the Federal Government and the private sector. While assistive technologies assist all age and disability classifications, assistive technologies still do not have the recognition in the Federal Government necessary to ensure they are a priority for federal research and development. Further, because of the relatively small market for specific assistive technology products, the private sector generally lacks adequate incentives to produce assistive technologies and users generally lack adequate resources to acquire assistive technology. There are also insufficient links between federally funded assistive technology research and development programs and the private sector entities responsible for translating research and development into significant new products for users of assistive technologies. Fostering partnerships to promote assistive technologies is, I believe, the key to the future for improving a disabled citizen's quality of life and providing them a means to acquire a job. These are some of the issues we will be addressing today as we hear from our distinguished panel and discuss methods to enhance the creation, implementation, and commercialization of assistive technologies. We have with us today a panel of five distinguished witnesses, representing a broad spectrum of large and small assistive technology companies, disabled organizations, and assistive technology users. I look forward to engaging in a discussion with our panel today about how we can remove the barriers to the development of assistive technologies. Finally, I hope everyone had an opportunity to attend the assistive technologies exhibition earlier this afternoon. Thank you to all those companies that participated in this very informative demonstration of the latest assistive technologies. By reviewing and operating examples of state-of-the-art assistive technologies, the Subcommittee, Members of Congress, and staff have been provided with an invaluable opportunity to be educated on the technology that aids the physically or mentally disabled. I would also like to extend my special appreciation to Tyrone Taylor, Angela Brown, and the Federal Laboratory Consortium for all of their hard work in coordinating the exhibition and their invaluable assistance to make this hearing a success. I now turn to my ranking member, the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Barcia, for his opening remarks. ---------- PREPARED STATEMENT OF DON PATTERSON DATAHAND SYSTEMS, INC. BEFORE THE HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY SUBJECT - ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1998 As one of the three directors who launched the company which has become DataHand Systems, Inc., I have ten years of experience developing the DataHand keyboard system--even though I am not involved with the company's operational management. When I first learned about the DataHand concept from an article in the Wall Street Journal, patent applications had been filed and prototypes developed, but much work was needed to refine the design into a market ready product. DataHand Systems is still a small company, but over the last several years the DataHand product has proven itself in the market-- especially among stress injured workers. Because of the seriousness of the stress injury problem, this group of afflicted workers became the initial focus of the company's marketing plan. More and more satisfied customers are spreading the word about the success of their experience with the DataHand keyboard. Some individuals credit the DataHand system with saving their careers. Many DataHand customers are highly paid computer programmers, greatly valued by their companies. Some of this group were on the verge of forced retirement before they started to do their work on a DataHand keyboard. Some had tried voice entry systems and other keyboard concepts to relieve their stress before they discovered DataHand Systems. Even in the face of improving and well-financed alternatives, the DataHand keyboard has remained the keyboard of choice for many stress injured workers. To the company's knowledge, no sale has ever been lost to any competitor. Company research shows that customers either stay with their existing keyboard or they purchase a DataHand product. The company does not feel it has any competitors capable of delivering similar benefits. Most other alternative keyboard products are derived from and are similar to the basic fiat QWERTY keyboard which was designed over one hundred and twenty years ago to prevent workers from going so fast they would cause the mechanical typewriter keys to clash. The flat, QWERTY keyboard design was intended, from the start to be awkward and inefficient. In many cases, DataHand operators, injured from previous work on a traditional keyboard, watch their pain and swelling go away over a period of months after they change over to the DataHand system. This can happen without workers taking any time off from work to allow the previously Induced trauma to subside. Nevertheless, the DataHand keyboard is not a medical device and no medical claims are made on its behalf by the company. The repetitive stress injury issue reached the public consciousness during the early nineties after the DataHand keyboard was well advanced along its developmental path. Although designed to improve productivity, the DataHand concept has proven ideally suited to bring valuable benefit to stress injured keyboard users. By the time the DataHand product was ready to enter the market, the repetitive stress injury issue had grown into a $50 billion annual national problem. In response, doctors have prescribed the DataHand keyboard for their Injured patients; DataHand devices have been used to close workman's compensation claims as well as to rescue many workers from pain-filled workdays. Last fall, for one example among many. the Health Section of the Washington Post carried an article about repetitive stress injury quoting a Baltimore physician, who reported his experience with the DataHand keyboard and other products over the past several years. He told of having found no other keyboard device apart from the DataHand keyboard which had proved able to help his patients gain relief from theft repetitive strain injuries. Many, many compelling user experiences could be cited if time and space permitted. Another example of note is the case of SaraLee/Hanes in North Carolina where fifteen DataHand devices saved the company $100,000 in Workman's Compensation claims, according to public statements made by company officials. A press release documenting this case is attached. A recent study of a random sample of DataHand users conducted by the University of Arizona is also attached to provide additional information about user response. An earlier study by the Harrington Arthritis Center is also available. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) commissioned theft own study of DataHand ergonomics, but that study has not yet been made public by the USPS. The company has been told only that the findings are favorable. More information about the DataHand keyboard system can be accessed through the company's website at www.datahand.com. 7- 9000 hits per week are being logged over recent weeks at this website. To provide more specifics on the views and ergonomic experience of postal workers a copy of an article from the Government Computer News is attached. The Phoenix Post Office was the first major installation site of DataHand devices in a highly stressful, high pressure work environment. In spite of its record of success, acceptance of the DataHand concept has been retarded, to some degree, by the device's unusual appearance. Unlike any keyboard people have ever seen before, the DataHand concept can be initially intimidating to some people. When they first sit down to begin work, people cannot imagine how they would ever learn to accomplish work on such an unfamiliar keyboard. It takes some minutes of adjustment before people begin to get the idea and understand the required touch and pattern of finger movement. Even though the DataHand key layout is based on the familiar QWERTY arrangement of the keys, four finger movements do have to be relearned. These correspond to the four diagonal movements of the index fingers on the fiat keyboard. These four movements are accomplished on the DataHand system through lateral movement of the second and third finger on each hand. These four finger movements are relatively quick and easy to learn. Most operators achieve functional speed on the DataHand device within 15-30 hours of work. This is the normal training range. Diligent, full-time users, who are not impaired by injury, usually achieve or exceed their fiat keyboard performance within 30 days or 3 million keystrokes. Dvorak and custom key layouts can be accommodated for the benefit of keyboard users with these special needs. A ten-key version of DataHand is available for those whose work requires only numeric entry. Customized numeric DataHand devices are used for sorting of mail by zip code. While many DataHand customers use the IBM-PC interface, other platforms are supported. As is the case with the U.S. Postal Service mail sorting equipment, a variety of specialized interface protocols have been offered. Numbers and functions are typed on the home row with the DataHand system by means of thumb activated mode shift. This approach makes the DataHand design user friendly, efficient, and readily touch typeable without the long finger reaches and hand movements required of fiat keyboard users. The DataHand design is beneficial to stress injured workers, because the palm of the hand is supported, and the keys are activated with 80% less movement and 80% less force than is required on the flat keyboard (and its ergonomically reconfigured derivatives). Accordingly, the stress of performing keyboard work is vastly reduced for workers on the DataHand keyboard. Because the amount of finger movement is so much less and because the "pounding" of the keys is not necessary, fatigue is reduced, and people find they accomplish a great deal of work without realizing how much is being achieved with very little work. All of the standard functions (shift, shift lock, tab, return, delete, control, option/alt, command, and space) are placed within short, easy reach of the thumbs. The thumb is the "most intelligent" of the five fingers, so it is given more work to do under the DataHand system. At first, some users find this scheme complex, but as they become accustomed to the idea, the logic of the concept becomes apparent. One of the major factors retarding the acceptance of the DataHand keyboard in the stress injured marketplace has been the lack of national ergonomic standards and/or a policy which addresses potentially overburdening liability costs. Companies have been extremely shy about acknowledging stress problems among their workers, lest they be forced to take costly steps prematurely on behalf of many workers. While many companies officials have waited for the situation to become clarified by court action or other developments, workers have suffered, sometimes in silence. Many workers have been timid about admitting their stress related pain for fear of derailing their careers. As a result, keyboard related stress is not as visible or as quickly managed as it would be if corporate and personal concerns in the absence of clear national leadership were not skewing the issue. In this climate, DataHand Systems often has not won larger corporate orders for DataHand keyboards until it has demonstrated improved worker productivity to go along with greater operator comfort and relief from repetitive stress. Although word of mouth communication has been a great benefit, people need time to become convinced that a strange new keyboard device can really help them. Each work environment is a little bit different from the next, so companies have needed their own experience with the DataHand keyboard before they become convinced of the benefits. Normally, the capability of DataHand is established by initiating a product test involving company workers in their actual work context. Ten or more workers are trained over four or five days; then their DataHand work results are monitored over several weeks. If necessary a learning curve projection is made to determine the additional amount of productivity workers are likely to gain over successive weeks of continued work. Where possible test results are compared to the initial performance results the worker achieved when they were learning to perform their job on the flat keyboard. So far. the DataHand results have always proved favorable in these comparisons. Productivity demonstrations have been advanced at a variety of companies In several Industries. High emphasis Is placed on support and making sure each company is satisfied with the results achieved. Typically, a productivity improvement of less than ten percent is enough to pay the capital cost of DataHand keyboards plus the training costs in less than a year. In each case the internal rate of return is calculated using the company's own labor cost data together with average worker hours of keyboard work per day. Productivity improvements have been significant enough to show substantial economic benefit to the bottom line of the client companies quite apart from the savings on medical cost and lost worktime resulting from stress injury, but the precise numbers achieved in the testing are proprietary to the client companies, The company welcomes the opportunity to set up demonstration tests with any company, government entity, or institution where substantial mounts of data entry work are performed. In some companies, stress Injury is a big issue, while in others productivity Is a bigger concern. Sometimes worker comfort apart from high rates of repetitive stress injury is considered Important. Workers in some companies consider the DataHand opportunity to be a significant job benefit. This can be important to a company In a highly competitive labor market. Where stress is an issue, the financial benefits of the DataHand choice are larger than they are where productivity is the only concerns - although typically, where stress injured workers are involved, some months are needed to bring workers back to full previous productivity before they can go on to improved performance. Concerns vary from company to company depending on the intensity of keyboard work, the number of hours of keyboard work each worker must perform per day, and other ergonomic issues such as work break policy, workstation design, chair choice, and etc. The DataHand purchase decision is normally weighed against the average cost of a stress injury case. Industry research has found this cost to be in the range of $30,000 including both medical costs and lost work time. DataHand Systems is also working to address the needs of other workers with disability, such as the blind and the muscularly impaired. For example, test demonstration plans involving blind workers and others are currently pending at the General Services Administration. A DataHand accessory providing auditory support for blind workers has passed the prototype stage of development. As soon as the software portion of the work is completed, testing will begin with blind workers. Thank you for this opportunity to submit testimony about the work of DataHand Systems, Inc. to help overcome the distressing effects of disability. We believe we can help many, many workers remain productive and pain free. As workers at the Rochester, N.Y. Post Office argued powerfully by way of block lettered T-shirts on informal dress days before DataHand keyboards were installed at their workstations, "Work should not hurt." ---------- PREPARED STATEMENT BY JOHN LANCASTER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THE PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES BEFORE THE HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE TECHNOLOGY SUBCOMMITTEE TUESDAY AUGUST 4, 1998 THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIVATE-PUBLIC SECTOR INITIATIVES TO ENSURE TECHNOLOGY ADDRESSES THE NEEDS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Good morning Chairperson Morella, Mr. Gordon and Members of the Subcommittee: I am John Lancaster, Executive Director of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. I am very pleased to be here this afternoon to tell you about a new public-private sector initiative of the President's Committee. SUMMARY OF OUR NEW INITIATIVE We are convening a Technology Task Force that will consist of technology companies that want to work together to develop standards for digital multimedia applications so as to facilitate access to information technologies for people with disabilities. The end result will be greater employment of persons with disabilities who currently face barriers as most technologies are not designed with people with disabilities in mind. WHAT IS THE PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE The President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities is a small federal agency whose mission is to communicate, coordinate and promote public and private efforts to enhance the employment of people with disabilities. The President's Committee provides information, training, technical assistance to America's business leaders, organized labor, to rehabilitation and service providers and to advocates and people with disabilities and their families. It has more than 300 volunteer members and works with the Governor's Committees on Employment of People With Disabilities in all fifty states, in the District or Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Island. The President's Committee works with the more than 600 Mayor's Committees on Employment of People with Disabilities. BACKGROUND The President's Committee has a long history of working with the private sector. From the start, in 1947 when the President's Committee was formed by President Harry Truman, in response to needs voiced by returning disabled veterans, private sector individuals and entities have been instrumental in the President's Committee's efforts to enhance employment of people with disabilities. As members of the Committee and its subcommittees, private sector individuals and entities have advised, assisted in coordinating and promoting employment of people with disabilities, and often behind the scenes, have influenced private actions in regard to employment for people with disabilities. The Committee provides information and works with business leaders. Currently we are working with the United States Chamber of Commerce in a Business Leadership Network in more than eleven states; with organized labor groups such as the AFL-CIO; with veterans' groups such as the Association of Non-Commissioned Officers and the Veteran's of Foreign Wars, and with many disability service providers and other federal entities. The most recent Executive Order for our agency permits the Executive Committee and our Chairman "to invite authorities in the various professional, technical and pertinent fields. to advise it in the exploration of those problems, and review plans and projects for advocating the employment of people with disabilities."1 Our new Technology Task Force is one such undertaking among many of the private-public activities we initiate. This one was introduced by Woody Kerkeslager, Vice President of Technology and Infrastructure at AT&T, who came to the President's Committee and wanted to work with us on disability access issues in technology. IMPORTANCE OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND UNIVERSAL DESIGN Most of us now know how important assistive technology devices and services are in creating gateways into jobs and education and other areas for people with disabilities. From sophisticated electronic voice prosthetics to adapted keyboards and zoom features in software, to closed captioning and Email text Messaging, people with all kinds of disabilities, with the aid of assistive technology devices and services, are able to do what many people without disabilities take for granted. There is also a pressing need to design and develop more mainstream technologies with the needs of people with disabilities in mind from the start, at the blue print stage. The disability community calls this approach 'universal design'. It is defined as a process of designing, developing, fabricating, making and technically supporting products and services that are designed to be accessible to and usable by the largest number of persons. This means it works for persons with and without disabilities. There is also a need to develop more assistive technologies so that a person with a specific disability, or combination of functional limitations, can access other devices or systems. HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Designing with disability in mind is important because of high unemployment rates among people with disabilities and due to the lack of access to information technology which impedes participation in the workplace. According to the most recent Harris Poll, conducted by the National Organization on Disability, only three in ten working-age adults with disabilities are employed full or part-time, compared to eight in ten non-disabled adults.2 Unfortunately, working age adults with disabilities are no more likely to be employed today than they were a decade ago, even though almost three out of four who are not working say that they would prefer to be working. This low rate of employment has, in turn, led to an income gap that has not narrowed at all since 1986, with one in three disabled adults, compared to just one in eight non-disabled Americans, living in very low income households with less than $15,000 in annual income. Other federal data demonstrate the severity of the unemployment disparity for people with disabilities compared to people without disabilities: - While 82.1 percent of the general working age population is employed (ages 21-64), only 52.3 percent of all people with disabilities are employed.3 This includes persons who have difficulty performing functional activities such as hearing, seeing, having one's speech understood, lifting and carrying, climbing stairs and walking, or difficulty with activities of daily living. - And, among those with severe disabilities, only 26.1 percent are employed.4 Severe disability is defined by the U.S. Census survey to mean someone who is unable to perform one or more activities of daily living, or has one or more specific impairments, or is a long term user of assistive devices such as wheelchairs, crutches and walkers. Other population data indicate the extent of the problems faced by persons with limitations that impact use of the products and services of the information age. According to U.S. Census Bureau 1992 SIPP data, 10.9 million have a functional limitation in 'Hearing what is said in a normal conversation'; 9.7 million have a functional limitation in 'Seeing words of letters in ordinary newsprint, even when wearing glasses'. And 2.3 million have a functional limitation in 'Having one's speech understood.' Additionally, according to this same source (SIPP 1992), more than half the population over age 65 has a disability and, with this age group growing rapidly, there will be ever increasing numbers of persons with functional limitations in the areas that impact ability to use information age products and services. Current policy changes to raise the retirement age and trends to continue working later in life place emphasis on this significant demographic shift and the importance we must give to ensuring ability to access and use products and services of the information age. Furthermore, there is an estimated 2.5 million persons, or one percent of the population, who experience mental retardation and about 5 million people, or 2.8 percent of the adult population, who experience a severe mental disability.5 There is much to be done in the field of assistive technology to ensure people with this disability can enter the workforce. "Even when software is available, existing operating systems create a barrier for individuals with mental retardation. Accommodations for such persons to use computers will include the development of software with simple displays, provision of information in non-text-based formats (e.g., graphics, video, audio), minimization of the number and complexity of decision-making points, presentation of information sequentially, and little reliance on memory."6 Also, our nation has 4.0 million children and adolescents, or 6.1 percent of the population under 18 years of age, who have disabilities.7 These young people will be a part of the workforce of tomorrow and while they face significant challenges in their classrooms today due to their disabilities, it is incumbent on our society to work to ensure that they do not also have to face the same significant challenges in operating the fruits of the information age when they enter the workforce. Assistive technologies and universally designed systems will be critical to ensuring their participation in the mainstream. The implication for manufacturers and developers of assistive technology and for manufacturers and developers of mainstream technologies is clear. There are critical, and growing, numbers of persons who cannot with ease: - hear voice menus and instructions; - see what is written on screens and other read-out devices; - walk or wheel up to or physically operate devices that access information; - voice back to a human or other operator or have great difficulty in doing so; - manipulate controls and buttons and switches; and - understand, or who are likely to become confused, when using or operating such devices and services. Moving people with disabilities from unemployment to employment is of fundamental national concern. Current federal policy trends are to move to develop more work incentives and to reduce work disincentives (such as proposals found in $. 1858, the Jefforts- Kennedy bill). However, whether these individuals with disabilities can access and use the electronic communication tools and information appliances of the workplace remains an open question. In fact, we are heating reports of people with disabilities experiencing underemployment and downward mobility due to lack of access to accessible technology. IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY One of the key members of our Technology Task Force, Woody Kerkeslager, Vice President of AT&T, and who is chairing our Technology Task Force -- and who could not be here today due to press of business -- pointed out to the President's Committee how digital technology can be seen as a power. Digital technology is transforming the creation, processing, storage, communication and use of information in all aspects of our lives. He told us how within the fields of education and employment, and within entertainment, to list a few, digital technology is changing relationships among people and among business sectors. Woody's expertise, from a long career at AT&T that includes work in computer-controlled switching to network planning, has informed us how this new marketplace force, digital technology, is impacting our society. He has advised us that digital technologies are more and more becoming the basis of information appliances. Computers, televisions, telephones, ATM machines, etc., along with communications networks and, importantly, the contents provided by communications networks, such as cable television and education systems, are more and more likely to be products of digital development. When essential job functions require the abilities to use and operate the devices and services, or the information appliances to access work-related content, many people with disabilities are at a disadvantage in both competitive and non-competitive work situations, when these products and services have not been designed with disability in mind. We are pleased to have Mr. Kerkeslager working with us as we approach solutions to making sure the needs of people with disabilities are addressed in technology development. Advice from the private sector advice is critical for people with disabilities seeking to secure and maintain employment. CHANGING NATURE OF THE ECONOMY The President's Committee has also learned, from work conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, that information technology industries are growing at more than double the rate of the overall economy and this is a growing trend.8 For instance, the information technology industry represents 8.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product, up from 5 percent in 1985. Information technology industries by themselves have driven over one quarter of total real economic growth on average over each of the last five years, according to the Commerce Department. Their report indicates that traffic on the Internet doubles every one hundred days and a large portion of this is business-related.9 Which means it is employment related. Another trend, unfolding before eyes in the headlines and news, is how there is growing convergence among technologies. Phone companies want to buy cable companies, phone companies are entering information services, wireless phone companies and software companies seek new partners in joint ventures daily. The common base which is driving them to come together is digital technologies. Digital technology -- telephone wire line networks, wireless networks, the Internet, broadcast television, cable television -- are becoming a communications network which information appliances can use to reach content, to reach information, to reach other people. Woody Kerkeslager has drawn our attention to the fact that the content industry -textbooks, databases, structures of learning, information for entertainment -- those industries now work with the communications industry in new ways. And the information appliance industries are capable of creating common platforms across all of them which are necessary to provide a network-based application. But the platforms which are sometimes called in the general media "multimedia applications", are the direction in the future, are combining voice and video and text and images. In the future an individual with a disability could select the mode of communication that is natural to that person if common standards are developed. When the President's Committee tapped the expertise of AT&T's Vice President for Technology and Infrastructure, we began to realize how these developments provide a unique and exciting new opportunity to fully include and empower people with disabilities, particularly in the workplace. We realized, too, just as importantly, if access issues are not addressed now, people with disabilities run the risk of being left out, left behind and otherwise not become participants in our nation's vibrant digital economy expansion. SHORTAGE OF WORKERS Of profound importance to national economic health also is the shortage of workers in the information technology sector and in digital technologies. Business leaders agree that we are running out of qualified people, particularly in the high tech industries with labor shortages likely to become even tighter over the next 15 years. And computer-related jobs are among the ten fastest growing job occupations. Right now more than 346,000 computer- programmer and systems analyst jobs are vacant in U.S. companies with more than 100 employees. Demand for information technology workers is outstripping the supply. In 1996, 7.4 million people worked in the Information Technology sector and in IT-related jobs across the economy. These workers earned just under $46,000 per year, compared to an average of $28,000 for the private sector as a whole. Analysis of IT occupations shows demand is expected to grow from 874,000 in 1996 to 1.8 million by 2006. OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES A positive result of this labor shortage is that barriers of discrimination are beginning to fall and businesses, big and small, are looking at people with disabilities to fill their needs. And the President's Committee has initiated several small private- public ventures to address this. One such program is the High School-High Tech (HS-HT) program. HS-HT programs are developed as state and local partnerships of employers, educators, rehabilitation professionals and consumers. We coordinate interested persons at the local level to work with a group of students to encourage students to enter technology-related careers. Over 90 percent of the youth who enter the program go on to higher education, usually in a technology-related field. Key to the program's success is the involvement of people at the local level who want to take responsibility to bring the various public, private and nonprofit leaders together in a 'can do' partnership to implement the coordination necessary to get the young people with disabilities 'jump-started' into technology careers. Another project of the President's Committee addressing workforce needs is our Workforce Recruitment Project (WRP). Each spring a team of our recruiters scours colleges and universities for young adults with disabilities, interviews and rates them and if they pass certain requirements, enters them on a CD-ROM database (which includes operating software) by field of study. The database includes notes on the students skills and employment preferences as well as their fields of study, such as computer science, engineering, or math. This CD-ROM database is provided free of charge to any company or governmental agency wishing to recruit students for either summer internships or other employment opportunities. Over a thousand students with disabilities can be searched by employers annually to find a young person that meets their qualifications for employment opportunities. This is one of the fastest-growing and most popular services provided to the private and public sector by the President's Committee! These are just two of our projects addressing the problem but we hope the Technology Task Force can work to support and expand such programs. ROLE AND FUNCTION OF THE TECHNOLOGY TASK FORCE Our Technology Task Force would utilize the power of the private sector to work cooperatively with leaders in the disability community, in government, academia and other entities. Our technology task force could develop industry agreement on common platforms for digital multimedia applications. Such an agreement, when products and services are developed, would paves the way to allow an individual with a disability to readily and easily select the mode of communications that is natural to that person. It could lead to new and exciting assistive technologies. It could lead to greater universal design within networks. The Task Force will be composed of corporate executive from relevant industries, such as long distance telephone companies, regional telephony operating companies, cable operators, cellular phone operators, television and radio networks, computer and other electronic appliances manufacturers, and software developers. Already we have Oracle Corporation, IBM, and AT&T involved and are contacting colleagues at Nokia, Microsoft, GTE, Hewlett-Packard, Bell-Atlantic and other companies who are expressing interest. By housing this activity at the President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities, the private sector can work within a private-public venue at a national disability entity that has historically, for over fifty years, worked with public and private sector entities, and in a non-partisan manner, advances the employment interests of people with disabilities. Through the collective action of this task force, which is driven by the private sector, and in a neutral public setting, agreements that lead to standards or common platforms for digital multimedia could lead also to more integration of people with disabilities into the mainstream of the digital revolution and greater inclusion in the development of the very tools that are defining education and the economy for the 21st century. It could mean the end of most technology-related barriers for persons with disabilities! The Technology Task Force plans also to focus on technology issues as they relate to the critical problems of under- and unemployment among persons with disabilities and we wall assist and direct the development of activities and programs to help ensure that every American with a disability can participate in our nation's vibrant information-based and expanding digital economy. With support from Congress, the President's Committee can promote and demonstrate exciting new programs that demonstrate how adults with disabilities can enter into information technology careers or how youth with disabilities can transition into information technology careers. We can do these activities only by working cooperatively with the private sector, and that we have started, and with leaders in the disability community in government, academia and with other entities. Your blessing on and support of this work is appreciated. Thank you. FOOTNOTES: 1 Executive Order 12640, signed by President Ronald Reagan, May 10, 1988, Section 3(b). 2 National Organization on Disability/Louis Harris & Associates Survey of Americans with Disabilities, 1998, Executive Summary. This nationwide survey of 1,000 Americans with disabilities aged 16 and older, was conducted in April and May of 1998. 3 U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program participation (SIPP) data, 1994. 4 Ibid. 5 According to Accepted Estimates. (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research's (NIDRR) Chartbook on Disability, 1996). 6 National Survey of the Use of Assistive Technology by Adults With Mental Retardation, Michael L. Wehmeyer, Journal of Mental Retardation, February 1998, page 48. 7 1992 National Health Interview Survey. 8 The Emerging Digital Economy, U.S. Department of Commerce, April 1998. 9 For instance, workers who telecommute number 11 million in the US in 1997, up from 9.7 million in 1996. The U.S. Department of Transportation expects that up to 15 million workers will be telecommuting in the next decade. ---------- PREPARED STATEMENT OF JOHN FALES JR. PRESIDENT BLINDED AMERICAN VETERANS FOUNDATION (BAVF) COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON TIMES (SGT. SHAFT) BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY SUBJECT - DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS FOR ASSISTIVE AND UNIVERSALLY DESIGNED TECHNOLOGIES FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1998 Thank you, Madam Chair and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee on Technology for holding this important hearing. There are no words adequate to express the positive impact new technology has had on those individuals with disabilities. It must also be noted, however, that synthesized speech technology developed for the blind has also had a positive impact on the entire world, for instance, voice mail. Assistive technology has played an important and meaningful part in my life these past few years. My talking computer, scanner, and "pocket-talk"/voice pager have enhanced me professionally as well as avocationally. It is important, therefore, when new telecommunication technology is developed, interfacing with assistive technology for the disabled must take place immediately. I am a user, not a technocrat. Recognizing that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" I have requested from those with expertise in assistive technology their suggestions and have the following recommendations: 1. "Commit to the full implementation of Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) and full keyboard equivalence in Internet Explorer 4.0 to ensure full accessibility. 2. Ensure that MSAA is part of the standard or typical installation of all future Microsoft operating systems, including Windows NT, CE and the successors to Windows 95. 3. Commit to comprehensive use of standard Windows controls or implementation of MSAA in such a way as to grant full access to non-standard controls within all future releases and upgrades of key products beginning with business, reference, education, developer tools and home productivity products. 4. Maximize accessibility of Microsoft products by committing to develop and implement full keyboard access to all features, continuing to offer customizable displays, and to support speech input/output. 5. Substantially increase the amount of staff time devoted to accessibility efforts across Microsoft product lines, especially in key product areas such as Windows, Office, IE and education. 6. Provide full support for MSAA in all developer tools and include accessible design as an important element in presentations to software developers. 7. Draw upon the resources of organizations representing the interests of people who are blind or visually impaired, to provide training in the access needs of persons with disabilities to Microsoft staff across all product lines, including research staff. 8. Strengthen the accessibility provisions as requirements of the Windows logo program and make compliance and support of MSAA a mandatory requirement for any application seeking authentication as a Windows compliant application. 9. Explore staff incentives such as providing bonuses to Microsoft employees who make significant contributions to a product's accessibility. 10. Improve Microsoft's technical and other support provided to screen reader developers to allow them to bring their products to market soon after the introduction of the Microsoft product they are intended to provide access to." There is strong concern among the disabled community that when Microsoft is the sole provider, as in MSAA, then access to other mainstream products will be controlled or limited by Microsoft. It is essential that mainstream developers coordinate with access developers and not depend solely on Microsoft and MSAA. Recently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has published for comment their Final Rule for Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It is important that this Subcommittee review and ensure that Section 255 of this Act is strong and is adhered to by manufacturers. This section requires assessment of accessibility and compatibility for each product. Furthermore, Section 255 requires that access "cannot be bypassed simply because another product is already accessible."People with disabilities experience more unemployment than those people who do not; people with disabilities are disadvantaged more so with the advent of new technological advances. It is always a continuing game of catch- up. A recent (July 23, 1998) Harris Survey commissioned by the National Organization on Disability (NOD) reinforces the statement. The survey finds that there are significant gaps between the working disabled and the working non-disabled: only 29% of disabled people between the ages of 18-64 work full time or part time, whereas 79% of the non-disabled population work full time or part time (a 50% gap). Significantly, 72% of those with disabilities who are not working say that they would prefer to be working. 34% of the adults with disabilities live in households with a total income of $15,000 or less compared with 12% of the adults without disabilities. About 20% of adults with disabilities have not completed high school compared to 9% without disabilities. It is imperative, Madam Chair, that the disabled community have immediate access to new technologies so individuals with disabilities have access to productive and meaningful careers. In closing, I wish to raise a personal quirk. Public Law 93-112, the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act mandate that materials should be provided to the blind in alternative format such as on audio cassette. I have yet to receive manuals from Microsoft or other computer hardware or software manufacturers on audio cassette so that I can independently install and train myself on their products and programs. Thank you, Madam Chair, for this opportunity to appear before you today and for your interest in insuring that individuals with disabilities have access to this wonderful world of technology. ---------- PREPARED STATEMENT OF MARK LOHMAN PRESIDENT BARTIMAEOUS GROUP BEFORE THE HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1998 Thank you for inviting me to appear before your Subcommittee on Technology. My name is Mark Lohman, I am the President and co-founder of a small, privately-owned firm called the Bartimaeus Group, located in Northern Virginia. Founded in January. of this year, 1998, the Bartimaeus Group focuses its energy on providing access solutions to individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Our trainers, three in number, are all blind or severely visually impaired. We have a support staff of professionals providing administrative, driving and accounting assistance to these men. Finally, our firm has assembled a unique group of five multi-media computer specialists who have developed a new, state of the art, interactive training CD for the blind computer user. This training CD, called NavigAide teaches the blind computer user how to operate the basic functions of a personal computer in the Windows 95 environment. The Act which your Committee and eventually the full House and Senate may someday consider addresses several major ongoing needs in the field of assistive technology. There are many different ways to conceptualize the most pressing needs of the blind and visually impaired community. Some would say we need additional and more reliable technology; others will emphasize the lack of information; some will talk about more training; and as always everyone will say there is not enough money to provide the needed technology, training, or service to those who are in need. But I believe there is a simple and direct statistic which gives a more powerful indication of how well opportunities are available for the blind and disabled individual. That one statistic is the current rate of unemployment among the working age blind person. Their unemployment rate hovers around 70% and when compared to the current national rate of 5% a tragic national story is captured. More than any other advancement, the personal computer armed with appropriate assistive technology can open up the employment world to large numbers of blind adults in a way never before imagined. The blind young man who graduated first in his class from Notre Dame and is headed for medical school at the University of Wisconsin did so with his native intelligence, hard work. and a laptop computer armed with a screen reader and voice synthesizer. Professor Dan Meador, fully blinded during adulthood, a constitutional law expert on the faculty at the University of Virginia, (also well known to many on Capitol Hill) continues to lecture and write voluminously with the aide of a Toshiba notebook, armed with DECtalk Express and a software package called JAWS for Windows. These two bright, shining lights demonstrate that the blind individual can attain the highest levels of cognitive and professional attainment and compete effectively side by side with their photon-dependent peers.How then can government aided research and private enterprise partnerships turn the exceptional into the normative? Bartimaeus Group, a privately formed company, hopes to demonstrate that a range of employment opportunities can be created through a successful private enterprise start-up firm that offers a comprehensive solution for the blind individuals we serve. The child who grows up with blindness and may or may not attend college (many do) or the adult who suddenly and severely loses Iris vision to Macular Degeneration, Retinitis Pigmentosa, Diabetic Retinopathy, and a host of other low vision conditions faces several significant hurdles to attain or maintain their professional employment standing commensurate with their ability. They need access to technology, a personal computer, possible Braille Display, a closed circuit TV for high magnification, and a screen reader with synthesizer. They need sophisticated adaptive technology, the means to purchase it, the right training, technical assistance for when breakdowns occur, and a supportive work environment. To say that our society is prepared to make the necessary investments for the millions plus blind community in our country remains a mountain to be climbed. This technology is expensive. Personal computers configured with adaptive technology attachments (both hardware and software) can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000 depending on the complexity of the solutions proposed. Few of the blind students leaving college have access to that amount of money. And how many employers do you imagine will make a $10,000 investment in new technology for an untried, blind college graduate? Assembling these technological pieces into a coordinated working unit is an almost impossible daunting task for the technological novice. Add a visual impairment and it's impossible except for the most gifted. Finding the right equipment and piecing it together is only part of the solution. Learning to use the personal computer in a manner applicable to one's work place requires extensive training. Training at $300-$500/day for 5-10 days-the usual requirement-may be out of reach for most blind individuals, if paid for personally. And, advancement in one's job usually means additional training. Program crashes and hitting the wrong key that may take the blind user to another planet are always dreaded events that can happen daily. Technical support lines may be nearly impossible to reach on some days. Most sophisticated sighted users of computers do not know how to configure the equipment for the blind user. The blind worker does not perform his job in a vacuum. The sighted supervisors and co-workers may all have fears about what types of accommodations may be required, or how best to provide assistance or opportunity when asked. For a young company such as ours breaking through those barriers to provide assistance to the blind is formidable. Our company offers the following services: we represent seven different manufacturers and sell an array of assistive technology products to visually impaired professionals; we go on site and install these products; we provide technical assistance and we train the blind and visually impaired professional on site. All of these services are provided by our blind/low vision staff. Where does a company such as ours, aiming to service three states, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, raise the necessary capital to purchase $40,000 worth of equipment, carry a credit line of $100,000 and meet a $20,000 per month payroll? In our case, where I have provided personally all of the start-up funds, some form of tax credits would be a great piece of relief. At Bartimaeus Group we have developed the first of its kind. an interactive training CD. This technology product which costs the user $250 supplants and/or reinforces a training pro,am that costs $2,000. If our training CD works, it places training at an affordable price for blind users in the most remote regions of our country.. But to produce this training CD cost our company $80,000. Who will provide this necessary amount of investment capital? No bank would lend us money to develop this product. The venture capitalists find us much too small and our market too specialized to be of interest to them. Here we are, ready to produce a family of interactive, multimedia training CDs for use on additional Windows applications such as WORD and Wordperfect, searching the Internet via a browser, e- mail, and other advanced office applications. We believe these training CDs will make a major difference in the lives of thousands of blind users. The question for our company is can we attract the necessary capital to develop these products? Can we sell them in sufficient quantity to earn a reasonable profit? A bill such as the one you are considering hopefully will provide the seed money for hundreds of small businesses, styled like Bartimaeus Group. and aiming to provide the link between technology and successful career advancement for the blind computer user. As Helen Keller once remarked, "Security is mostly a superstition; it does not exist in nature: nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable." Thank you Madam Chair for permitting me to testify before your subcommittee today. ---------- PREPARED TESTIMONY OF JAMES R. FRUCHTERMAN PRESIDENT ARKENSTONE, INC. BEFORE THE HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY SUBJECT - DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS FOR ASSISTIVE AND UNIVERSALLY DESIGNED TECHNOLOGY FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1998 INTRODUCTION: Chairwoman Morella and members of the Subcommittee on Technology: I am Jim Fruchterman, Chairman of Arkenstone, Inc. As a Silicon Valley engineer and entrepreneur, I've dedicated the majority of my time over the last nine years to building a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to breaking down the barriers to information access for people with disabilities. I have also had the privilege of serving recently on the federal advisory committee advising the Access Board and the FCC on the implementation of Section 255 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which provides for improved access to telecommunications by people with disabilities. Arkenstone is the holder of a GSA contract for adaptive technology, and our annual sales to the U.S. federal government are approximately $250,000. Today, I am testifying to encourage partnerships to put assistive technology into the hands of the people who need it: people with disabilities. I started Arkenstone as a nonprofit organization in 1989, after founding two successful Silicon Valley companies, because I saw a need that couldn't be filled by traditional high technology companies. I had helped invent a technology that could be applied to making affordable reading machines for the blind, but my company couldn't afford to invest in making a product for such a small market. There is a tremendous amount of technology sitting on shelves in this country that could positively impact social needs, but the powerful economic motivation for doing this does not exist. Arkenstone's financial goal is to break-even. This gives us more flexibility to pursue our nonprofit mission.Arkenstone's motto is: "Information Access for Everyone!" We provide tools to people with disability to pursue independent living. Our primary projects are reading systems for people who are blind, low vision or who have a learning disability. Arkenstone reading systems expand literacy and expand the reach of people with disabilities to the world of printed material. We are now the leading maker of such reading systems in the world. Partnerships Our assistive technology goal is to replace or augment a sensory disability. The technology we have used has been derived heavily from military, NASA and federal sources. For instance, I first thought of building a reading machine for the blind while I was a graduate student at Caltech. This was after my professor explained how a smart bomb used pattern recognition to blow up an enemy airfield. Pattern recognition research at that time was heavily supported by our military. I thought the same technology could recognize words on the page for blind people. A few years later, I was able to apply that technology to reading when I helped found a company to develop optical character recognition. We've also been able to put other government technologies into the service of people with disabilities. Our use of voice synthesis, digital maps and the Global Positioning System CGPS") to make map and position information accessible all depend partly or wholly on technology created by the research of federal laboratories and agencies. Our relationship with the federal government and labs has been great. As a matter of fact, just last month we moved our facility to NASA Ames Research Center on Moffett Field in California's Silicon Valley. We have fixed up and are now paying rent on what was an empty Navy office building. As the first tenant of NASA's planned space technology campus at Ames, we will be working with NASA's technology people on expanding the application of NASA technology to the needs of people with disabilities. We are especially interested in making Internet technology more accessible to seniors and people with disabilities, and believe that this partnership will bear fruit from the sharing of our resources and expertise. Arkenstone has not been a recipient of direct federal funding, probably because of our small size, but we have greatly benefited from the U.S. government's dedication to employing people with disabilities and supporting its veterans with disabilities. Through purchases of our systems, we have been able to generate the revenue we use to invest in development of improved assistive technology. We have specifically benefited from extensive work with the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration and the Social Security Administration, where Arkenstone either holds federal contracts directly or as a subcontractor, supplying adaptive technology. We also have had great partnerships with the high technology industry. Through the tireless efforts of Dr. Bruce Mahaffey of IBM's Special Needs Systems, in June we were able to introduce a major innovation in assisting adults and students with learning disabilities. With extensive assistance from IBM, we've made a new reading program called WYNN (for "What You Need Now"). WYNN provides text in a visual and auditory form that a dyslexic person can read independently. IBM has supported our work in learning disabilities in many ways: product ideas, subsidized access to IBM's speech technology, research with disabled students, loan of the time of IBM engineers, direct financial grants and marketing. I know that in working with IBM I am seeing corporate responsibility to society exercised at its highest degree. Together we have produced a major step forward in making independent literacy a reality for people with learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Other firms have been generous both financially and with assistance. I want to especially acknowledge Intel, which has provided millions of dollars of the best Intel microprocessors for us to use in our systems for people with disabilities. The Intel microprocessor is at the core of that incredible tool for people with disabilities, the personal computer. I call the PC the "Swiss Army Knife" for people with disabilities: an incredibly powerful general purpose tool that can be made usable for people with a wide variety of disabilities through the addition of adaptive technology. Hewlett Packard has supplied the "eyes" of our reading machines through the efforts of their scanner group. HP has provided us with incredible deals on their scanners, as well as dedicated technical support and locating discontinued scanners that have features that our disabled users especially prized. Lastly, I wouldn't have been able to enter this field without the incredible support of my former company, which is now part of Caere Corporation. Caere is a strong supporter of the application of their reading technology to the needs of the disabled. Challenges Adaptive technology is a tough area to be in business. The majority of people with disabilities are unemployed and economically disadvantaged. You can't make it in this field solely on heart, though many people try. Technology costs money to develop and for consumers to purchase. Thanks to the incredible engine of the computer industry, the affordability of adaptive technology has improved every year. However, the barriers are still high. Solutions I want to express my strong support for financing assistance for adaptive technology. In the United States, individuals and their families still bear much of the burden of buying adaptive technology. The need for financing of this equipment is the number one issue I hear about from my constituency. We need to help these individuals help themselves. Whenever we have been able to mount our own subsidized financing programs in the past at low or no interest, we have had excellent payment records even though we usually accepted people who couldn't obtain commercial credit. The demand for such financing has far outstripped the funds we were able to allocate to these programs. I'd like to make it easier for small organizations like ours to expand our relationships with federal labs and agencies. We've run into the barrier that a lot of technology transfer is modeled on the commercial partner coming up with a substantial investment. Those funds generally don't exist in our field. We'd love to find a way to get the start-up costs for new products covered en route to fielding products that can break even in production. We've had to put my favorite Arkenstone invention, Strider, our talking GPS locator for the blind, on hold because we've run out of funding to finish the project. We've had the most success raising money for this project outside the U.S., from Canada and Austria, but I'd rather be finding the funding here. Lastly, I'd like to encourage the concept of universal design as much as possible. Many of the barriers the adaptive technology industry spends its limited resources trying to overcome could be completely and economically side-stepped if the engineers at Microsoft or other firms were thinking universally in their designs. My long term goal is for adaptive technology to become unneeded because all products in the future should be designed to adapt to the needs of the consumer, rather than the consumer adapting to the product! I hope we can work together to make universal access a reality. Thank you for the opportunity to address you on these important matters. ---------- PREPARED TESTIMONY OF DAVID A. BOLNICK PH.D. MICROSOFT CORPORATION BEFORE THE HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY SUBJECT - DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS FOR ASSISTIVE AND UNIVERSALLY DESIGNED TECHNOLOGY FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1998 Good afternoon, Madam Chairman and members of the Committee. My name is Gary Moulton and I am here representing Microsoft Corporation. On behalf of our Chairman and CEO Bill Gates, and our President Steve Ballmet, I want to thank the Committee for its invitation to participate at this afternoon's hearing. Another member of Microsoft's Accessibility and Disabilities Group, David Bolnick, joins me. Bill Gates recently said, "the personal computer is one of the most promising assistive technologies there is today"- and he reaffirmed Microsoft's commitment to be an industry leader in making our software products accessible to all users. Microsoft's earliest efforts involved adding access to our personal computer (PC) operating systems. The Trace R&D Center,/1 with a grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), developed the "Access Pack," a set of accessibility aids for DOS, Windows and Windows NT users. I can't emphasize enough how important such a triad among government, academia and corporate America is to obtaining universal accessibility. Starting with Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT 4, the features of the Access Pack were built-in to these operating systems so that any user, anywhere, using a Windows PC would have access to these features. Windows 98 contains additional access utilities. Windows NT 5.0 will contain even more. These accessibility features -- electronic curbcuts as we call them -- and the hundreds of adaptive hardware and software products have enabled individuals with disabilities to use PCs in their everyday activities, the classroom and the workplace. However, the evolution of PCs, operating systems and applications is occurring so rapidly that the use of a PC as assistive technology often fails to keep up with rest of the industry. In some cases, individuals with disabilities do not have access to the latest and greatest technology. This is not acceptable - and Microsoft is applying significant resources to help narrow this gap. To this end, Microsoft has developed and is continuing to improve a technology called Active Accessibility. Microsoft Active Accessibility will standardize the way Windows PCs and adaptive hardware and software communicate with each other. Like the Access Pack, Microsoft Active Accessibility will be integrated into the operating system so that all users, on any Windows PC, can benefit from this technology. The Internet, with its explosive popularity, poses another speed bump for individuals with disabilities. Thousands of Web pages are created daily, with only a fraction of them employing good accessible design practices. Thus, Microsoft Internet Explorer has built-in accessibility options to help tailor Web pages to the needs of the user. In addition, Microsoft has created a software development technology called SAMI Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange -that enables webmasters and software developers to easily add closed captions and audio descriptions to multimedia that employs Internet standards. These represent only a few accessibility features built into our products. Yet, all of these electronic curbcuts are worthless if those who need them are not aware of their existence. People with disabilities need to be aware so that they can develop competitive academic and workplace skills. Likewise, educators, professional service providers and employers need to be aware so they will utilize this "under tapped" resource. No one company, organization or agency can ensure that products are accessible and available, and that the world knows about them. Thus, to make progress, partnerships must be fostered, formed and focused on two specific objectives: 1. To promote and provide an incentive for the development of accessible products; and 2. To raise awareness of what is possible with assistive technology. Microsoft has underway its own initiatives aimed at achieving both objectives. During 1998, Microsoft is integrating individuals with disabilities into every facet of our product design and development processes. We have formed independent Access Review Boards to help evaluate our products in the early design and development phases. We will form a Disability Advisory Council composed of individuals with disabilities that will periodically consult with Microsoft to keep our efforts on track with the needs of individuals with disabilities. In addition, our "Designed for Windows" logo program is a widely used industry standard for the design of software for the PC. Software developers who want to use our logo on their packaging must follow certain accessibility recommendations and requirements in the design of their products. We verify compliance by using a third-party testing lab. When computers are accessible, everyone benefits. Employment- in particular --is one of the greatest examples of what an accessible PC can make possible. Individuals with disabilities are significantly under-employed. Recent survey data from the National Organization on Disability (NOD) suggests that this fact is not changing. At the same time, the information technology (IT) industry sorely needs qualified individuals. An accessible PC will enable many individuals with disabilities to be employed in the industry. Imagine how that one opportunity impacts our society and economy. Microsoft is helping to make this opportunity a reality for many. For example, Microsoft has a Skills 2000 initiative -- the overarching goal of which is to help remedy the information technology workforce shortage by recruiting and training new people for jobs in the IT industry.These programs are open to individuals with disabilities. Madam Chairman, Microsoft is committed to making our products accessible to the widest range of users. We are also committed to helping drive the industry towards universal, accessible design. Finally, we are committed to raising awareness of what is possible with assistive technology. But again, Microsoft recognizes that other business entities, federal and state governments, relevant organizations and individuals must all work together to make these fundamental changes. We know this hearing will help further this larger goal, and we look forward to an ongoing dialogue with the Committee on how to foster these relationships. FOOTNOTE: 1 At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, under the auspices of Professor Gregg Vanderheiden. ---------- End of Document